No cash to move Dar flood victims

Relocation of victims of last year’s Dar es Salaam floods to Mabwepande has been suspended due to shortage of funds, Kinondoni District authorities revealed yesterday.

The statement comes as some of the flood victims who were rendered homeless for more than four months are still in temporary camps, in Ubungo Maziwa, Mgulani and Mbweni JKT, waiting to be resettled.

“The exercise of relocating flood victims to the surveyed plots at Mabwepande in Kinondoni district has stopped because the government is yet to provide funds for implementing the second phase,” Kinondoni Municipal Council Director Fortunatus Fwema told The Guardian.

Fwema said the money disbursed by the government in the first phase, was utilised in surveying about 1,600 plots at the site, 624 of which were given to flood victims.

The other 400 plots were given to the residents from the edge of Msimbazi valley creek while the rest are to be sold.

Recently, in a brief statement at Mabwepande President Kikwete ordered the regional disaster committee to give plots to all the victims.

“We should not exclude tenants in the allocation process…these are our people. We have to be concerned with their plight,” said Kikwete while receiving reports on the implementation of the relocation exercise from the regional disaster committee.

According to the President, flood victims, tenants included, were citizens of Tanzania who deserve to be treated fairly and equally, noting: “Tenants should not be left to suffer. We need to support them; we need to take care of them.”

He said giving plots to landlords only would be unfair, as some of them had not been living in the flooded houses.

“We should not discriminate them…they have nowhere to go. I once again strongly insist that tenants must be given plots during this exercise,” said Kikwete.

Kikwete directed regional authorities to prepare the modalities for the incorporation of tenants in the allocation of plots, observing that if the surveyed plots were not enough, they should look for areas outside Mabwepande.

Meanwhile Jayne Nyimbo the Twiga Cement Company Director of Human Resources told The Guardian that the government was yet to relocate Chasimba villagers to pave way for expansion of the plant is yet to be implemented.

The government promised to include Chasimba villagers in the relocation of the flood victims to Mabwepande.

“Up to this moment the villagers have not been relocated although we participated in the preparation to shift the villagers who have invaded the company’s premises,” she said.

On June 20 last year Twiga Cement management threatened to close down its Wazo Hill plant in Dar es Salaam unless 952 Chasimba villagers said to have invaded the firm’s premises heed a court order and move out.

The company’s lawyer Sam Mapande said the firm reached the decision after authorities failed to remove the villagers as ordered by the court and that they were just waiting for the directives from the company’s headquarters in Germany on the date they should affect the move.

The Appeal Court ruled in 2008 that Twiga Cement Company was the lawful owner of the land and that the villagers were supposed to vacate the area to enable it carry out development activities.